'Transform' is Latin for 'change shape' — an exact parallel of Greek 'metamorphoun.' Both mean the same.
To make a marked change in the form, nature, or appearance of something; to undergo a fundamental change.
From Old French transformer, from Latin transfōrmāre (to change the shape of, to metamorphose), built from trans- (across, beyond, through) + fōrmāre (to shape, to form), from fōrma (form, shape, mould). Latin trans- descends from PIE *terh2- (to cross, pass through), while fōrma may derive from PIE *bher- (to carry, bear) via the sense of a shape held or impressed. A transformation literally carries a thing across the boundary between one form and another — it is not mere modification but passage through a threshold. The word entered Middle
Latin 'trānsfōrmāre' and Greek 'metamorphoun' mean exactly the same thing, element by element. 'Trāns-' = 'meta-' (across, beyond); 'fōrmāre' = 'morphoun' (to shape). If 'fōrma' and 'morphē' are indeed related by metathesis, then 'transform' and 'metamorphose' are doubly parallel — the same compound built independently from the same roots in two sister languages.
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